Update: The account ledger for Gaithersburg High School has been posted on the Parents Coalition website. Among other things, this document shows that as of June 30, the Independent Activity Fund at GHS had total assets of $620,583.80, including $493,824.96 in cash and $115,313.92 in accounts receivable — the latter including $99,928.00 in “Student Obligations”. The accounting lists hundreds of account categories with positive working balances, ranging from the expected funds for various teams, field trips, proms, etc., to more baffling categories such as textbooks, workbooks, and other apparently academic, curriculum-related line items such as “SCIENCE-CHEMISTRY”. I say “baffling” because the school system is arguing that they continue to offer a free education, and insist that student fees are not used for curricular activities. I have trouble understanding how e.g. textbooks are not curricular. From July 2007 through June 2008, the total income in this fund appears to have been $759,221.08, while total disbursements were $707,201.98. It is quite difficult to determine from this accounting how much of that money came from student fees.
Daniel de Vise writes in the Washington Post, Audits Obtained by Parents Show More Misspent Funds
For a second consecutive year, parent activists are calling attention to a pattern of accounting problems in the use of student funds at some Montgomery County high schools.
Periodic audits of student activity funds find that school administrators frequently fail to follow protocol in recording how money is spent. In some cases, thousands of dollars intended to be spent on students are instead spent on teachers. In other cases, schools appear to be making a profit from course or test fees that are supposed to cover — but not exceed — the school’s costs. Some schools are running five-figure deficits.
PDFs of several audit reports can be found on the Parents Coalition website.